PHILADELPHIA — Jamie Moyer reached a rare mark for a pitcher, becoming the 44th to win 250 games. The veteran Phillies left-hander would have been just as happy if it was his first.
Moyer, a former Seattle Mariner, went six strong innings to lead the Phillies to their third straight victory, 4-2 over the bumbling Washington Nationals on Sunday.
The 46-year-old Moyer is only the 11th left-hander to join the exclusive 250-win list. And despite his teammates’ postgame champagne toast, Moyer’s words lacked the excitement one might expect after such a rare achievement.
“It’s not about the personal things, I’m more excited about us winning,” Moyer said. “I really haven’t thought about (winning 250). It takes so much effort to prepare and play. I was taught to play the game as a team, not as an individual. When you play 20-some years, some of these things can happen.”
Moyer is pitching his 23rd season for his seventh club. It was his sixth try at 250 after going winless in his last five outings while allowing 38 hits and 26 earned runs in 24 1-3 innings.
“I really wasn’t concerned about how many attempts, I was concerned about creating consistency with myself,” he said.
Moyer (4-5) had one his best starts of the season Sunday, striking out four and walking none while registering a season-low hits allowed. It was Moyer’s first win since April 26.
And while he was reluctant to laud his milestone, others offered praise — especially for a pitcher who has reached 250 wins with a fastball in the low 80s.
“It’s impressive how much he’s persevered in this game,” Nationals manager Manny Acta said. “He’s been written off several times. It’s remarkable and he sets a great example. I’m happy for him.”
Said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, “A guy like Jamie and the type of pitcher he is, what he’s had to earn and his ups and downs, it says a lot about the individual. For a guy with his ability, how he goes about it, how he gets it done, you don’t see many guys like that.”
Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless ninth to record his 12th save.
The Phillies (28-20) have won seven straight against Washington and 10 of 12 this season against the major league baseball’s worst team. Josh Willingham homered twice for the Nationals (13-36), who have lost six in a row and 15 of their last 17.
Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead in the first on Chase Utley’s double, and Chris Coste’s second-inning homer to left made it 2-0.
Willingham homered to left in the fourth to pull Washington within 2-1, but Philadelphia got the run back in the bottom of the frame when Raul Ibanez scored on a fielder’s choice.
Willingham led off the seventh with his second homer, this one to deep left field, off reliever Clay Condrey to close the margin again to 3-2. Once again, the Phillies came back with a run in the bottom of the frame, as Ryan Howard tripled to center — his second triple of the season — to score Utley and put Philadelphia ahead 4-2.
Lannan (2-5) allowed only four hits in five innings while striking out seven, but fell to 0-3 in three career starts at Citizens Bank Park.
“Lannan gave us a chance to win and he threw the ball well,” Acta said.
“I felt great, I just walked too many guys,” said Lannan, who walked four.
Notes: Willingham has six career multihomer games. … Moyer is
8-0 in his last 12 starts against the Washington franchise and 13-4 all-time. … Nick Johnson went 0 for 3 against Moyer, dropping him to 1 for 21 lifetime against the lefty. … Howard struck out twice against Lannan and the slugger now has nine K’s in 19 at-bats against the Washington left-hander.
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